A future release is not a send

Answer A future release is not a send. RFC 4865 defines an SMTP service extension for future message release. A client can hand a message to a server now and ask that server to release it at a later time. The handoff into the holding server is real. The send, in the sense a buyer means, is the later moment when the message actually leaves toward the recipients. Until that moment, you have a plan in a queue.

The note that started this: RFC 4865, SMTP Service Extension for Future Message Release, RFC 4865.

Solo ad orders are full of plans. Tuesday at nine. The top of the hour. After the other drop. The seller's screen shows a scheduled state and everyone relaxes. Relaxing is early. If you are comparing best solo ad vendors, ask what their scheduled state means in the log. Some platforms release when they said they would. Some platforms mean the message is eligible to leave when a worker gets to it. Eligible is not left.

The extension is a specific mechanism, and plenty of schedulers are not this mechanism. A calendar inside an ESP is usually an application clock, not this SMTP feature. Do not let a seller cite the RFC unless their server actually accepts a future release the way the document describes. Do let the document sharpen the vocabulary. Held is held. Released is released. The two words should not share a timestamp in the report.

What is future message release?

RFC 4865 defines an SMTP extension so a client can submit a message and ask the server to release it later. Until the server releases it, the message has not been sent. A hold is not a send.

Submit means the client has given the bytes to a server that agreed to hold them. That server may be the seller's own. Release means that server starts the outward delivery. Between those verbs the message can sit while the list changes, while you change your mind, or while their queue stalls. A buyer who thinks the first verb finished the job will discover the stall on the day the clicks do not come. Ask which verb the invoice describes.

This note stays off the command names. They are in the specification for operators. Your sentence is enough. When did it leave? If the answer is the time you picked on a form, ask for the time a receiving server accepted mail for a domain you can check. The second time is the one that can disagree with the form, and the disagreement is the fact you came to learn.

• The order states a release time and a grace window.
• The report states when mail actually left.
• A hold is labeled as a hold.
• You can cancel while the message is still held, if the order says so.

Does a scheduled solo ad count as delivered at the scheduled time?

No. The scheduled time is when someone asked for the release. Delivered, or even accepted by the next server, is a later fact. Ask for the timestamp on the acceptance, not the timestamp on the calendar click.

Delivered is a slippery word even after release. Accepted by the first outward hop is the earliest honest stamp. Arrival in a particular inbox is a stamp you often cannot see. The calendar click is not a stamp at all. It is an intention. Intentions are how good operators plan. They are also how late operators hide. The log separates them. Ask for the log line, not a recap in chat.

If the drop is large, release may spread over minutes or hours after the start. A spread is normal. Call it a spread. A seller who reports a single heroic minute for a huge file is rounding. Rounding is fine in a sentence. It is not fine as the only record when you are arguing about whether they mailed on the day you bought.

What should a buyer keep when a drop is delayed?

Keep the promised time and the actual release time in the same note. A late release can still be a fair send if the order allows it. A late release sold as an on-time send is a different story. The log is the story.

Fair means the order said what happens if the queue slips, and the seller told you before the slip became a surprise. A surprise the next morning, dressed up as a completed send, is how trust dies in this business. You do not need a dramatic refund policy to start. You need the two times. If they match, pay happily. If they do not, you have a conversation with evidence instead of a conversation with moods.

RFC 4865 gave the protocol a way to hold mail on purpose. Purpose includes telling the truth about the hold. A future release is not a send. The send is the moment it leaves. Write that moment down.